For Elsha

I thoroughly enjoyed my sister Elsha's recent posts about presents and traditions to skip.  I thought I'd just go ahead and copy the snot out of her.

We skip every single tradition she mentioned skipping.  Man, aren't we scrooges?
1. We ALSO skip a traditional Christmas dinner (no roast turkey or glazed ham here!), but favor instead the traditional Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls.
2. We do not put lights up the day after Thanksgiving; we put them up whenever we get around to it.  This year I got around to it BEFORE Thanksgiving, but it's only lights in 2 windows.  Not a lot to brag about.
3. We don't carol.  Not as a Jacobs family, at least; we did it for approximately 2.5 million years with the original Gustavson clan, but I have never heard Joe sing anywhere besides Sacramant meeting or randomly in the kitchen ("Three blind mice!").  He doesn't even sing along in the car, folks, I seriously doubt he would be caught dead Christmas carolling.
4. We don't have any Christmas collections.  We don't collect nativities, mini Christmas scenes, we've got nothin'.  In fact, this sounds blasphemous now that I write it, we don't have a SINGLE NATIVITY scene.  We talk frequently about what Christmas means, why we celebrate it, and I'm pretty sure I've already disillusioned Patrick about Santa being real, but we don't have a visual symbol of Christ's birth to speak of.  I guess I'd better get on that this year before GIFTS become the "reason for the season"....


Speaking of gifts, we are SO PUMPED about the gifts for the kids! I think baby Jesus would approve :) Well-thought-out stuff here, we were aiming at containing the toy clutter and instead went for Gross Motor Skills.  Here they are in no particular order, and PLEASE remind me not to have our blog up when they're around any time before Christmas:
For Eli, who can't stop throwing balls at both people and inanimate objects.  This gives him something to aim for!  (Photo courtesy of bedbathandbeyond.com)

From my parents for Caroline, who gets left out of the fun when her brothers are riding every conceivable wheeled contraption (bike, trike, scooter, go-cart...) out on our driveway. (Photo courtesy of bedbathandbeyond.com)

Two of these, for the boys, in case wheeled contraptions should prove too dull. (Photo courtesy of jumpingballs.com, where we bought them - only $12 each!  Seriously, people, BUY THESE)

For Patrick, who has been begging for this particular Dino for nigh on 6 months, and I think the drool in his sleep is due to dreaming of it. (Photo courtesy of Amazon.com)
















For Eli, since my mom reminded me that buying ONE awesome elctronic dinosaur when TWO boys love awesome electronic dinosaurs was just buying myself a fight. (Photo courtesy of Amazon.com)

For all the sandbox lovers at my home, from my parents.  They were considering that alphabet train Elsha's kids are getting when I complained everything gets taken to the sandbox and consequently ruined.... these toys were the perfect solution!  MEANT for tough play in the sand.  I am SERIOUSLY loooking forward to this summer outside! (Photo coutesy of leapsandbounds.com)